A new face
by danstrg
Summary: A man wakes up in a strange room without any memory. He sets out to find out where he is and most importantly, who he is.


A new face

He was lying on the ground. A hard and cold floor. He slipped back into the darkness several times, before he was properly awake. The room around him felt strange and unknown but on the other hand he had the strange feeling that he has been here before. His heads was spinning wildly as he tried to get up. He staggered up and looked around. The room was circular and dark and only red light were flashing around the edges. In the middle of the room was a big round type of console. He went over and bend over it, as a new wave of dizziness rushed over him. The console was a wild mixture of levers, button and lights. It looked nothing like he has ever seen before.

As by accident he touches one of the big lever on his right, he saw a flash of images. A grey haired man standing in front of a mirror. A red beam of light and pain. He immediately let go of the lever and staggered back. He looked around and found a door at the wall to his left. He ran up to it and tried the door handle. It was locked. Panic rushed over him. Where was he? What kind of place was this? And the most disturbing question. Who was he?

As the panic stated to ebb away a little, he decided that he need to find a way out of this place. He saw an opening in the wall, which seemed to lead to a corridor and he ran for it. Without stopping he turned left and ran down the corridor. The corridor was grey, badly lit and at regular intervals, a door was on the right or left. He ran on until he came to an intersection. He looked left and saw that there was a dead end, so he turned right and ran down the corridor. The panic started mounting again and he felt like he was running straight for the centre of a maze. Another junction. Another intersection.

He was sure he was lost already, so he stopped and looked around. The corridors all looked the same and he screamed out his frustration. To his right he saw a door which was ajar. A light came out of the little gap and so he went over and pushed the door open. He stood frozen in the doorframe. The room before him, was a different version of the room he ran away from. It was brightly lit and the console in the middle was green and smaller. The walls had roundels all around and looked white and sterile. He knew this room. He couldn't explain it to himself, but he felt like has been here before. He stepped over to the console, but before he touched it, he withdrew his hand. He remembered the flash-back at the other console and therefore he didn't want to touch it. But he felt like he has come to an old friend's house. Strangely familiar but from a different life. He stood there for a minute the he turned around. Somehow the room had calmed him down and he moved outside and down the corridor. He went on until he came across a door which had a tiny label on it. The writing was faded and looked extremely old and he needed moved closer to read it. "Amy and Rory".

He tried the door handle and it wasn't locked. He pushed the door open and a room like in a hotel room. The only strange thing was the bunk bed in the middle of the room and a wedding dress hanging over one side of the bed. He stood in the doorframe and for no obvious reasons, he had tears in his eyes and he was overwhelmed by sadness. He stepped into the room and went over to the dress. He took it from the bed and looked at it. He saw a flash of a women with red hair, which seemed to be dancing at her wedding with him. He saw happy faces all around. Another flash, he was toasting to the broom and then he was back in the room. Sadder and lonelier that he seem to ever felt before. He left the room, walked into the corridor and sat down with his back against the wall. He tried to make sense out of this all. He still didn't know who he was and why he was here. The more he tried to remember anything, the more his head started spinning. So he got up again and went down the next corridor. He was lost, confused and lonely and didn't know what to do. He walked aimlessly thought the corridors until he reached a dead end which a wooden door. It was the first wooden door he has seen and so he opened it and stepped into the room.

The room was enormous and filled with racks full of different type and style of clothes, strange hats and shoes. Left to the door there was a mirror. He stepped in front of it and looked at himself. He was wearing a dark type of suite which looked dirty and worn. He had brown hair and brown eyes. But he didn't recognizes his face. It was like looking at the stranger at a picture. He was turning his head left and right and he said

"At least I got 2 ears".

He looked down at his clothes and felt that they, for reasons he couldn't explain himself, belong to a different person. He turned around and went through the aisles and picked the items from the racks at random. He took a black jeans, a grey t-shirt, a black hoodie and black shoes. He went past a rack full of scarfs and his eye fell on a particular long scarf in dark and light brown and red. He took the scarf and a flash-back hit him. He saw a brown head and Jelly Babies. Then he saw a strange looking planet and a name came to his mind.

"The master", could he hear himself repeat and he let go of the scarf and stepped back directly into the rack behind him. Out of one of the racks, a long brown coat fell directly in front of his feet. He look at it for a moment and picked it up. He went back out of the racks and looked for a place to change. But in this room there were nothing but racks of clothes. He didn't want to walk around anymore and change into his new clothes directly where he stood. He felt more comfortable in his new clothes but it still felt strange. He thought of the name

"The Master" and asked himself if that was his name. But it didn't felt right. But still he had the feeling of an old friend. Or enemy? The room and his thoughts confused him more and more and so he made to leave. He took a last look around at the strange items in the room. He looked at the strange assortment of hats, jackets and in one of the corner he think he saw a red Fez. He walked out of the room and as he started walking, he recognized that the corridor in front of him changed. Where before there was the corridor he came from, there now was an opening. He turned around and looked at the door. It was still the same through he entered the room with the clothes. He looked back at the opening and he could see a faint red light pulsating beyond the opening. When he turned his head back to the door in confusion, the door was gone and a new corridor lay before him.

"What is this place", he thought and went through the opening. He immediately saw that he was back in the circular room with the big console in the middle. The room was still dimly lit and the red lights were still flashing. As soon as he took his first step into the room, the room was lit up and the red light stopped flashing. He looked around the room, but he didn't recognized it any more than before. He went up to the console and fell down on his knees. He buried his face in his hand and started to scream.

"What is going on here," he screamed. "Who am I, where am I".

As if the room wanted to answers his screams, the room started to vibrate and made strange noises. The middle of the console started to move and lights were dancing all around. As suddenly as the sound had started, it had stopped again. In the sudden silence he heard the faint sound of a lock being unlocked and the looked to the door, which opened. But nobody came through. So he took his chance and ran for the door. As he ran through the door, he expected to be in the next room, but he stopped in surprise. He was standing in the middle of a park. He took a few more steps, when he heard the door behind him close. He turned around an all he could see was a blue box. A blue old fashioned police box. He couldn't have come out of this he thought and stepped around to look at the back of the box. But it was just an ordinary box. People passing by didn't even seem to notice the box and were just passing by. He turned and ran away from the box into the park. He ran for several minutes until he broke down, completely exhausted and out of breath. He collapsed on a nearby park bench and tried to catch his breath. As he was looking around he seemed to remember the park in front of him. He was in the middle of the Hyde Park. He was in London. It was the first time since he woke up, that he recognized a place. He thought that he must live here somewhere, or is here for a visit, but his thoughts were interrupted by a group of kids passing by. The kids were chattering and laughing when they passed him by. He overheard one of the boy's taking to one of the others.

"But Danny Pink is a strange name for a teacher" he heard the boy say.

"Yeah, but I still think that he is one of the coolest teachers that we ever had" said the other. He looked after the boys, when a man stopped right next to him. He was a big man, with short hair and a face that has seen troubles.

"Are you ok, Sir," Danny Pink asked. "You look completely dehydrated".

Danny Pink looked down on the man in serious concern. He grabbed for his bag and took out a bottle of water.

"Here, I always have some to spare, in case one of the kids needs one," Danny Pink said and offered the bottle. "Thank you" the man said and took the bottle. As soon as he reached for the bottle he saw a picture of the man before him. We was talking to a women with black hair. They were arguing. Something about travel and not having enough time. Then the picture changed and he saw the man in some kind of metal armour. His face strangely distorted and little hooks were tearing on the site of his face. He immediately drew back his hand and looked up to the man.

"Make sure you drink the whole bottle, before you go on", he heard Danny Pink say. "Sorry but I have to get after the kids".

He ran after the kids. He looked for a minute after the man who shouted something after a kid called Reaven until they were lost out of sight. He drained the bottle and stood up. He didn't knew where to go and so he just turned into the direction the kids came from and started walking. He walked aimlessly though the park for nearly an hour until he saw that he walked in a circle and he stood right before the bench he started from. But next to the bench he saw the blue police box. He didn't understand how this could have happened. He left the box on the other side of the park and it wasn't there when he was sitting there before. He went up to the box and touched its side. A name suddenly appears in his head.

"TARDIS".

He couldn't make head nor tails out of this name. He stepped up directly to the strange blue box and went through its door. He was standing in the same circular room with the console. But how could it fit into this small box. He went back outside and walked around the box.

"Is it bigger on the inside, or is it smaller on the outside? ", he thought as he went back in.

The lights and the console immediately came to life as he closed the door behind him. Something was going on, but he didn't knew what. He went up to the console, where there a black top hat was sitting on one of the levers. He took it and turned it in his hands. The lights and the sound stopped again and he heard the door unlock again. He placed the head back on the lever, but as he did, he heard the door locking again. He turned around confused and looked between the door and the hat. He picked the hat up again and heard the door unlock again. He placed it back and the door locked. He thought that this is a strange way to lock a door with a top hat, but he took it and went for the door. He stepped out onto a side street. The sky was a dull shade of grey and the smell nearly took his breath away. It smelled like in a sewer, mixed with other things he didn't even want to think about. The door closed behind him and he placed the top hat on his head. He barely noticed it the perfect fit. He walked out of the side street and stood on the corner of some kind of main-street. But what he saw, made his head spin again. All around it looked like he be on a film set for a movie that takes place in the Victorian London. There were carriages all around and people were dressed in old fashioned clothes. His head didn't stop spinning and he felt to one knee. How could that be? One moment ago he was in Hyde Park and now he is one some kind of film set. Or was it a film set?

He looked around him and the more he looked at things, the more he knew that this was no film set. The smell and the dirt were much to convincing and the dirt and the people looked genuine. Could it be that he really was in the Victorian London? The strange box had many strange features, so why should he be surprised that it also could travel through time. But why him? Who was he that the box seem to need to show him this place? He stood up and walked down the street. He didn't know where to go, so he just walked down the street, where he could see a small market. There were many different things on display. Things he didn't want to even touch. Meat that seems to been on display for ages. Fish that smelled horribly old. Bread, garments, whatever you can think of, you can find it here. He reached the edge of the market and he looked around, unsure where to go. He turned and walked into a woman who held two loafs of bread in her hands. He looked at her and saw a picture of her in her head. She was carrying a sword and was standing in a big dark hangar, next to a cradle, with the read headed girl.

"I'm so sorry Mister", she apologized and walked on to a carriage. "We are ready to go ma'am," she said to somebody inside the carriage.

When he looked up to the driver of the carriage, he saw a short man with a head like a potato. He couldn't help but stare at this strange man. The potato man looked down at him. "Stop staring at me you unworthy human or you will be obliterated," he said and the carriage drove off. As he looked after the strange man a picture came to his head. The strange man was in an strange armour and talking about a debt he will have to pay for a man called

"The Doctor". This didn't make sense to him and so he stood there for several minutes, lost in his thoughts, trying to make sense of what he has seen so far.

He couldn't help but to like the potato shaped man. Again he had the feeling of some long forgotten friend. He knew he couldn't stand there forever and so he moved on aimlessly through the streets. He walked on for hours but he couldn't find a place he knew or meet a face he knew. Just when he decided that he would try to get back and find the blue box again, he turned around a corner and the strange blue box was standing right in front of him.

"Who would ever believe me that I'm traveling through time with a blue box," he taught and went over to the box.

For a second he thought that he had gone in circles again and came back to the place he started. But when he looked closer at the street he saw that he was in a complete different street. So the box was following him around, which gave him a strange feel of home. He walked through the door and went up to the console. He took the top hat off his head and put it back on the console. He heard the door lock and in that moment he realized how tired and hungry he was. He didn't knew if he would find something to eat but he remembered the room with the bunk bed. He moved over to the corridor, closed his eyes and tried to retrace the steps he made earlier, to find the room with the bunk bed again. When he opened his eyes again, the corridor had changed again. There was only one corridor ahead and it led to a dead end with a door. He walked over to the door and pushed it open. The door opened to a room like a big hotel suite. There was a big bathroom, a big dining table and a big double sized bed. He stepped into the room and went straight into the bathroom. He stood in front of the big mirror and looked at his face. He looked terribly. He needed a shower, a shave and a good night of sleep. He undressed, took a shower and started to shave, until he cut himself by accident.

He swore and expected to bleed. But there was no blood. A strange yellow glow seem to come out of the cut and it healed itself. He stood startled in front of the mirror. He was too hungry and exhausted to wonder about what just had happened. He went out of the bathroom and in the middle of the big dining table, there was a big bowl of custard and a plate of fish fingers. He was so hungry that he would have eaten anything, but to his astonishment, it tasted just fine. He finished the fish fingers, walked over and fell into the bed. He was asleep before his head even touched the pillow.

His dreams were strange and distorted. It was a sequence of pictures that didn't seem to connect in any way possible. He dreamed that he was talking to a Roman Centurion, in front of a big stone cube with strange markings. He dreamed about a red headed woman in a library and about a kid in a gas mask and his sister, no his mother. He drifted then into a deep sleep, without any dreams and woke up several hours later. In the first moments after waking up, he felt fine and everything seemed to be alright. But only a moment later the bad feeling came back and he remembered that he didn't knew who he was, or where he was, or what he should do. He got out of bed and went over to the clothes on the chair next to the bed. He remembered undressing but the clothes were neatly folded and looked like they have been washed and ironed. He looked around confused.

He never seen anybody in this place, but this proofed that he couldn't be alone. Somebody must have come in, while he was sleeping and changed his clothes. He dressed and went into the corridor and into the room with the console. Just as he wondered, what he should do next, he heard a knock at the door. He went up to the door and just as he wanted to open the door, he wondered if he should do it. He didn't knew who was out there. Immediately a voice in his head urged him on. He was curious who was out there. It knocked again and he opened the door. Outside there stood a girl with a big wooden chest in her hands. She was young and had long dark hair, but her eyes looked like the eyes of an old women.

"You could ask me in, this chest is quite heavy," she said and he stood aside to let her in.

He looked outside and he saw that they were standing in the middle of nowhere, next to an American Diner in the middle of the dessert. He turned back to the girl and the door closed itself again.

"I really don't want to be rude," he started, but the girl interrupted him.

"Since when do you mind being rude," she laughed. "If you want you can be the rudest person I have ever met. And believe me I have met a lot of rude people".

"I'm sorry but I still don't know who you are," he said. "I know that you must be quite confused," she started.

"I'm here to help you to start remembering. But first things first. I'm Me and you are The Doctor".

"Me," he asked "Who else would you be".

He laughed and it felt for him like it was the first laugh for ages. Suddenly a name came to his head.

"You are not Me," he said "I have met you under a different name. – Ashildr – Your name is Ashildr".

The girl smiled a kind smile and sat on the wooden chest.

"That name is so far away for me as your name for you, Doctor," she said. "But you seem to start to remember, which is good".

"I'm a doctor," he said. "Do I work in a hospital or am I a different kind of doctor?" The girl smiled and looked.

"A very different kind of doctor," she said and stood up. "It took me quite some time to get an overview of the thing you did here on earth. I only wrote down the important bits, but still there are 5 books filled with your adventures. The last book is filled with all the things you did with Clara. You should hear her talking about you," she broke off and looked sad. "She would have liked to come," she said. "But I didn't thought of it as a good idea.

So I stole the restaurant and came here, while she is still in the caves of Neburala 12," she broke off again.

"It doesn't matter, where she is or why. I don't think you can remember her yet. Anyway I should be off. Please take the time and read the books. They will help you".

She walked up to him and for a moment he thought that she wanted to hug him. "Take care," she said and walked out the door. He looked for a long moment and the chest, uncertain what to do. He couldn't think of anything else to do, so he went up to the chest and opened it. Inside there were five leather bound books marked with numbers from one to five. He took the first book out of the chest, closed it again and sat on it. He opened the book and started to read.

Several hours later, he closed the last of the books. His head was spinning worse than ever. The stories he had just read where so strange, bizarre and fascinating, that he couldn't believe that they could be true. Monsters, Daleks, Vampires and all these thinks couldn't exist and definitely he had nothing to do with the person in that book. The man called The Doctor, was brave, witty and always found a way out. He was nothing like this man. He even couldn't find a way to sort out his own head. He stood up and walked over to the console. He screamed out his frustration and his anger.

"What do you want of me," he screamed. "I don't know what you want of me, or what I should remember". "Help me," he begged and like it would answer, the console light up again and everything started to move again.

When it stopped, he heard the door unlock again. He walked over to the door and for a moment he had a strange sensation, of adventure. Like he would step out to something unique. But the feeling was gone, before he even were able to hold onto it. He stepped out the door and he stood in a street in London. He didn't recognize the street, but it must be somewhere near Millennium Bridge. He stood there in the sunlight and felt the sun on his face. His frustration and anger ebbed away the longer he stood in the sun. He didn't want to move. Didn't want to run around and look for something or somebody he couldn't find. He suddenly heard two people arguing. A man in tweet jacket and a bowtie was arguing with a dark-haired woman in a dark dress and a coat.

"I thought the Tardis would be able to land somewhere near, Doctor," he heard the women say.

"Usually she does, Clara," the man answered. "But sometimes it feels like there is a need for a detour. You know that she has her own head". Just as he finished his sentence, the man called Doctor, crashed into him. Both men fell on the ground.

"So sorry," the man said and started to stagger up. He was standing there, padded down his jacket and muttered to himself. When the man looked up, the woman was standing over him and reached out her hand.

"I'm sorry, he sometimes doesn't look where he is going," she said. "Actually, it's like this that all the time".

He took her hand and for the first moment nothing happened. But the suddenly he saw pictures in front of his eyes. The man on the ground was driving on a motorcycle with the girl. The she was standing drenched in water in some kind of submarine, then she was talking to the man he had met earlier that day. Then he saw her with a different man, a grey haired man. Then a name came to his head.

"The impossible girl". The pictures stopped and she helped him up.

"Are you OK," she asked? He just nodded and the girl seem to be happy with his answer. "Come on we have to move," she said to the other man. "Run you clever boy," she said with a smile.

With this word, she turned and walked away. He looked over to the man just as he stepped up to him.

"Run you clever boy and remember," the man with the bowtie said. "I do love this sentence". He looked at the man and bowed his head to him.

"Doctor," he said and smiled.

"Doctor," the man replied and bowed his head.

He looked after the man until he was lost around a corner. He turned and headed back the way he had come. The TARDIS was standing where he had left it. He walked through the door and next to the console, there lay a stack of neatly folded clothes. He stepped up to them and changed into them. Black shoes, black trousers, a white shirt, a dark jacket and a light brown overcoat. He stood there for a minute. "And remember," he muttered to himself. As he said the words, a yellow light was coming out of the wooden box with the books. He stepped over to it and opened it. The books were gone and in their place there was his TARDIS-key and his Sonic Screwdriver. He took both items out of the box and placed them into his coat pockets. He stepped up to the console and looked around.

"I remember," the Doctor said.

THE END.


End file.
